


are you but a bruise on the sky

by random_pairings_50113



Series: Heaven Wait [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Supernatural, Teen Wolf (TV), The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Afterlife, Angel Caroline, Angel Ellen, Angel Jo, Angel Kol, Angel Lydia, Angels, BAMF Caroline, BAMF Lydia Martin, Basically, But also, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone is Dead, F/M, Fate & Destiny, Guardian Angels, Literally Everyone is an Angel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 06:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4656375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_pairings_50113/pseuds/random_pairings_50113
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Not many people can say they've died twice, but Caroline Forbes can tell you the exact details of both of her, rather unfortunate, deaths."</p>
<p>Caroline Forbes is greeted, on her death, by a beautiful girl in a white dress who tells her that she hasn't fulfilled her purpose just yet, and she must go from a vampire to an Angel. Every dead person, good or evil, supernatural or human, has the choice to become an Angel and to keep everyday humans on their fated tracks. Caroline meets new friends, and old enemies and does her job well. </p>
<p>But she can never see her family and friends again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. do not pity the dead

**Author's Note:**

> (title from song "Heaven Wait" by White Lies (aka the best band ever, seriously check them out))
> 
> Literally, I just put all my favourite female characters into the same fanfiction and I regret nothing at all. Lydia and Caroline (and Clara Oswald, but she won't show up until later) are all my faves from TV shows I watch, so they'll be the main players. But there'll be a lot of familiar faces coming into play, from all sorts of fandoms. You don't necessarily have to have seen any of the shows, or whatever; important details will be explained. 
> 
> I just wanted to see my faves, together, kicking ass and taking names.

Not many people can say they’ve died twice.

(To be fair, not many people can say they’ve died once, either. Not many people can usually speak after they’ve died, no matter how many times it’s happened)

Caroline Forbes can tell you the exact details of both of her, rather unfortunate, deaths.

The first time she died, Caroline was seventeen years old; a normal, human, American teenager who happened to be in the same car as a werewolf who got suddenly distracted and – BANG! She woke up in the hospital with internal bleeding.

That’s not how she died. Caroline Forbes was, in fact, quickly recovering, which was why her death was such a tragedy.

It also went unnoticed by a good number of people, including her own mother.

It was just unfortunate that Caroline had been unknowingly hanging around with a couple of vampires, and that she got caught in the crossfire of their battle with a rather vicious ex-girlfriend. It was exactly midnight when Caroline’s heart stopped beating.

And it was four minutes past when she gasped back into being, this time as a vampire.

The second time Caroline Forbes died, she was twenty-two years old. Now a strong, capable vampire, she had hoped that it wouldn’t be so easy to kill her the second time around.

She was wrong.

All it took was her not-quite boyfriend’s recently-resurrected mother to get a little angry, and suddenly Caroline had a stake in her heart and her skin was turning grey. Only, instead of the world turning black like she had expected, Caroline woke up exactly where she had been, with a beautiful girl hanging over her, instead of her potential future mother-in-law. The girl had really long, beautifully curled red hair that reached the small of her back, and she wore a white, knee-length dress with a light pink blossom pattern on the hem. With glaring, warehouse lights directly behind her head, she'd looked exactly like an angel - which is, coincidentally, what she was.

"I'm Lydia," she'd greeted, helping Caroline to her feet. "I'm an Angel. And it's time for you to become one too."


	2. i was in the middle before i knew that i had begun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caroline meets Head Angel, Ellen, and is introduced into the world that she is now to live.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (title is a quote from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, the reason for which will be shortly revealed)

“I met an angel before,” Caroline confessed, staring out at the view before them. She had a thousand questions, but that was the only thing that she could think to say.

Lydia was perched next to her, both of them sat on the lip of a large rock, looking out over rolling hills, fields dotted with sheep and clustered villages. Caroline suspected they were somewhere in England, although she had no idea how they’d got there. One moment, she had been dead on a warehouse floor, the next she was in England watching sheep. Lydia didn’t say anything, so Caroline continued.

“In Maine,” she explained. “My mom and I were on holiday. There was this beautiful girl stood by a market stall, and I just remember thinking how gorgeous her hair was. The same day, I almost drowned – something stupid; I got caught under the waves when I was swimming. But I didn’t drown, because the lady saved me.”

Lydia was still quiet, her eyes fixed on a tractor puttering down a farm track.

“I didn’t know she was an angel back then, of course,” Caroline continued. “In fact, I completely forgot the whole thing until just now. That’s weird, right?”

Lydia shook her head and tucked a red curl behind her ear. “Not weird. The angel… she saved you because it wasn’t your time to die. There are fixed points in everyone’s lives that they have to stick to, and you had to die at the right time. That’s what angels do; we make sure people stick to fate.”

“Did she make me forget?” Caroline wondered, and Lydia nodded.

“We’re not supposed to be seen. If we were… if people realised we had that much control over fate…”

She didn’t finish, but Caroline filled in the blanks. Angels had foresight, and an awful lot of power. If it ever got into the wrong hands, the effect would be disastrous. But something else was bugging her.

“Wait. You said that we can’t be seen. Does that mean…?”

Lydia nodded slowly, and finally turned her large, sad eyes to face Caroline. “I’m sorry. You can never see your friends again.”

* * *

Heaven was not exactly what Caroline was expecting.

Once, when she was younger and her dad still at home (simpler times), her mom had sat her down and forced her to watch the six-hour version of Pride and Prejudice. (Usually, Liz Forbes was not one for clichéd love stories and soppy endings, but she had always made exceptions for Colin Firth.) What lay in front of Caroline was almost exactly how she remembered Pemberley to look.

A large, stately home made up of marble pillar and carved, pale stone stood across a wide, open field exactly adjacent to Caroline and Lydia. In front of the house was a lake that reflected the blue skies above them. Trees hedged everything in and Caroline found herself standing in awe, eyes gazing at the many Angels milling around grounds.

"This is _insane_."

Lydia cracked a smile for the first time. It made her look way prettier, in Caroline's opinion, and brought out the prominent dimples in her cheeks. "Like something out of a period drama, right? Ellen had a thing for Colin Firth when she was human.

Caroline laughed. "So did my mom."

"Ellen's the head Angel," Lydia explained as they strolled towards the house. Caroline became very aware of the other Angels - all women, all dressed in white, all talking and laughing as though they weren't in the afterlife - glancing at her as she went past. She still wore her torn, charred jeans and shirt from before, but she hadn't noticed because the air around her was permanently warm. Still, now she felt a little self-conscious. 

"Ignore them," Lydia said loudly. "New faces are an exciting thing. Still, we should show respect for the dead."

Her last words were clearly directed at a pair of blonde girls passing them by the lake, who then looked down shamefully.

"Anyway," Lydia said with an eye roll and a hair flick (Caroline got the idea that Lydia had been like her when she was alive; the head cheerleader and the most popular girl in school). "Ellen's our boss. She's only been here about... five years? I don't really remember. But she's one of the best, and she looks after us all like we're her own children."

"Sounds nice?" Caroline didn't really know what to say.

Lydia nodded absently as they marched across the gravel driveway and then up the marble steps to the gilded, golden front door. "She is. But she's also firm."

"Hey, Lydia," a girl stood by the door greeted with a smile. She was tall, with short, dark brown hair and a dimpled grin. Her white shift was knee-length and paired with a green camouflage-patterned jacket. On her feet were black boots. Clearly the uniform wasn't as restricted as Caroline had initially dreaded.

A real grin broke out on Lydia's face, and she looked genuinely happy as she squealed and flung her arms around the girl. "Ally! I thought you weren't back for another week?"

'Ally' shrugged as she pulled back from Lydia's embrace. "I took care of it. New recruit?"

Lydia glanced at Caroline as though she'd forgotten about her. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. This is Caroline Forbes. She was a vampire."

Ally smiled warmly at her. "Hey! I'm Allison. Welcome to Heaven."

Caroline smiled back. "Thanks."

"You on your way to see Ellen?" Allison guessed. At Lydia's nod, she let them pass through the double doors. "Good luck!"

The inside was just as magnificent as the outside. A large hall extended way past the logical height of the house's front, and spiraling marble staircases protruded from all corners of it. The floor was deep blue, with moving purple-and-gold galaxies painted across it. Caroline gaped.

"Cool, right?" Lydia laughed. She seemed much more upbeat after her encounter with Allison. "We need the stairs straight ahead. I think."

They set off across the floor, Caroline's ruined boots clicking against the surface and echoing all around them. They only passed the occasional person, and they were usually absorbed in conversation or files of papers. Every so often, Lydia would wave, exchange greeting and offer Caroline names that she immediately forgot.

"So, is Allison your best friend?" Caroline wondered as they climbed one of the staircases.

A flicker of sadness passed across Lydia's face, but she ignored it in favour of a tight smile. "Allison and I were best friends when we were alive. She was killed a couple of years ago by angry Japanese warriors and I thought I'd never see her again. But then I died... and she was waiting here for me. There are some upsides to being dead."

From the tone of Lydia's voice, she was clearly unsure whether the upsides outweighed the downsides. Caroline fidgeted, uncomfortable, and mounted the remaining steps in silence.

They emerged into a long, extremely posh corridor. The carpet underfoot was a deep red and muffled their footsteps as they walked. The walls were cream with golden embellishments every so often. Paintings were dotted across the walls; some moving portraits of proud, beautiful women with plaques underneath; some group photos (again, moving) of girls all grouped together in their matching white dresses, giggling silently; some, landscapes of mountains or lakes. (Caroline swore one of the them was of Colin Firth as Mr Darcy, emerging from the lake, but she couldn't be sure.)

Finally, they reached the door at the very end of the hallway. Just before it, Lydia stopped and turned to a miniature keypad on the wall. She pressed a button and waited.

"Lady Ellen is currently in residence. State your name and purpose." The tinny voice emerged from the keypad, yet it seemed to Caroline that the voice was so clear, there could have been someone stood right next to her.

"Lydia Martin," Lydia said after a pause. "Escorting an RD."

"RD?" Caroline frowned, as the keypad beeped and made a funny noise. 

"Recently Deceased."

If that was supposed to make Caroline feel better, it severely failed. Suddenly, and quite violently, a slit appeared on the wall below the keypad and out shot a long line of what looked like a receipt. Lydia took it, divided it into three, and handed one piece to Caroline.

It was a rectangular sticker that had her name printed on it in perfect, purple lettering. Underneath CAROLINE FORBES was two initials: RD. Caroline stuck it on her frayed shirt and watched Lydia do the same. Then Lydia took the remaining sticker and placed it on the door, where a handle should have been. She pressed it and the door flew open.

For a moment, Caroline was almost certain they were in the wrong place. Before her, instead of the pristine office she was expecting, was the inside of a creaky, dark, old bar. Stood at the counter was a stout woman with brown hair, who was talking to a man sporting a mullet. The woman's eyes (which Caroline briefly noted were lined with wrinkles; from age, laughter or grief, she couldn't tell) flickered to the door and the bar instantaneously disappeared.

Caroline blinked. She was stood in an entirely different place; a cream and gold office lay before her, with large, mahogany bookshelves lining the walls and a matching desk in the middle. Behind the desk sat the woman from the bar, but this times she looked more put together. Her shoulder-length brown hair was swept up into a bun atop her head, making her piercing eyes more visible, and her wrinkles look more severe. She wore white like the other angels, but instead of a dress she sported a jumpsuit.

"Come in," she called out from her spot behind the desk. A name plaque sat in front of her, reading: ELLEN HARVELLE - HEAD. Caroline felt strangely like she was in high school again. "Shut the door behind you."

Lydia led the way inside graciously, so Caroline took it upon herself to shut the door before following suit and sitting in one of the plus, white armchairs in front of the desk. Caroline was self-conscious about getting soot or dirt on the chair, but Ellen didn't seem to mind and Caroline wondered whether Heaven ever got dirty at all.

"I am sorry to hear that you died," Ellen started, and Caroline noted her strong Southern-American accent was much more suited to the bar than the office. "But with death comes boundless opportunities - including this one."

Caroline got the feeling that Ellen was reading the speech off a card somewhere (it sounded too structured and formal) but decided not to complain.

"Tonight, at the Feast, you will take on the Vow an be joined in our sisterhood. I assume Lydia covered everything - but do you have any questions?"

Caroline had so many that she didn't know where to begin. Would she really never see her family or friends again? Exactly what kind of missions would she have to go on? Would she work alone or as part of a group? What was the Feast? And the Vow? Why was every Angel female?"

"What's the Feast?" she asked eventually. "And the Vow?"

"The Feast," Ellen explained simply. "Is dinner. For every Angel who is not on a mission. Of course, it is more ceremonial, because Angels don' physically need to eat. The Vow is just somethin' you have to say to swear allegiance to us. Nothin' too big - and, before you ask, no blood sacrifice is required."

Caroline swallowed thickly and had the sudden urge to escape the room. "Er... I think that's it."

Ellen nodded and handed over a white (SURPRISE!) lanyard. The card attached to it had Caroline's picture (she had no idea how they had got it) and her name on it. She smiled and placed it around her neck. Immediately, it turned invisible.

"Safety precautions," Ellen explained as Caroline's eyes widened. "Intruders can't replicate them if they don' know they exist. And everyone needs a lanyard, or the alarms go off. Now, that should be all. Lydia, would you show Caroline to her house?"

I get a house? was Caroline's immediate thought. But she got the feeling that it was going to be nothing like she expected.


End file.
